2013 PGA & Web.com Tour Restructuring

[MEfree]

Some of the details were announced at http://www.pgatour.com/2012/h/07/10/tour.qualifying/index.html and discussed at INTERVIEW : Web.com President Bill Calfee discusses changes with SiriusXM

This is what I understand so far:

1.  The 2013 PGA Tour season will end with the Fed Ex Cup Playoffs

2.  The 2014 PGA Tour season will start in the fall of 2013 (with the events that used to make up the Fall Series now counting towards the next years Fed Ex Cup Playoffs.

3.  The Web.com Tour will have 3 season ending events with a purse of roughly $1 M each that will include the top 75 $ list from the Web.com Tour as well as 126-200 in Fed Ex Cup Point list as well as non PGA Tour members who finish 126-200.

4.  The leading "regular" season Web.com $ winner will have a full exemption on the PGA Tour and will get into the next years Players Championship.

5.  2-25 on the Web.com regular season will be guaranteed PGA Tour cards, but their priority order will be determined during the 3 season ending events.

6.  25 additional PGA Tour cards will be handed out based on the results of the 3 season ending Web.com events.

These are the questions that I have:

1.  Is it now Fed Ex Cup points instead of $ that determines the top 125 who keep their PGA tour cards?

2.  Are the 49 cards that are awarded during the 3 Web.com events determined strictly on the cumulative earnings of those 3 events or does the regular season (both Web.com and PGA Tour) seed the players in some way (other than the 2-25 on the Web.com regular season being guaranteed of a card)?

Based on the radio interview, it sounds like the #2 on the Web.com regular season could end up #50 in terms of priority if he doesn`t play well during the 3 season ending Web.com events.  It also sounds like the #200 on Tour or #75 on the Web.com Tour could get a card ahead of #126 or #26 by earning just $1 more during the last 3 events.  It also seems like a guy who plays on both tours and finishes #201 and #76 is left out even if he is only a $/point behind on both list of a player who played exclusively on 1 of the tours.

It also seems possible that a high amateur finish on the PGA Tour might get credit for Fed Ex Cup points to get into the 3 Web.com events, but this doesn`t seem like the case for high amateur finishes on the Web.com if their top 75 are determined just on $.

Has anyone else seen a more detailed explanation?

What does everyone think?  I have a number of thoughts, but at minimum think they should also have #1 on the Web.com regular $ list get an spot in the Fed Ex Cup playoffs- that could make for a great Cinderella story.  If his current year play is good enough for the next years Players, then why not the current year Fed Ex Cup?  75 regular Tour guys are competing in the Web.com season ending events, so why not let 1 (or more) of the top Web.com guys into the Fed Ex Cup playoffs??

Here are some of my other thoughts from when this was originally floated to the public last year.

[iacas]

Surprised nobody had anything to say about this.

[Golfingdad]

Sorry for asking what is probably a really dumb question ... But what exactly do they mean when they talk about the priority of the guys getting their tour cards?  What's the difference between getting the 2nd card and the 50th card?

[brocks]

Sorry for asking what is probably a really dumb question ... But what exactly do they mean when they talk about the priority of the guys getting their tour cards? What's the difference between getting the 2nd card and the 50th card?

All cards are not created equal. You can see the different categories here: http://www.pgatour.com/r/player_exemptions/ A tournament typically has 150 or so spots, and they are filled by taking all the players from Category 1 who have entered, then all in Category 2, and on down, until there are no more spots. By the time it matters, i.e. by the time you can possibly have near to 150 players, the players are ranked within a category, i.e. for category 19, last year's money list, they are ranked in order of their place on that list (except I don't know how they rank the guys in the medical categories). So if you won the US Open in the last five years, you have a Platinum Card. If you were first on the money list last year (category 8), you have a Gold Card, but if you were 100th on the money list (category 19), you have a regular card. It's probably good, but you'll have to wait and see who else enters before you know for sure. You have a higher priority than the guy who finished 101, but lower than the guy who finished 99, assuming none of you qualified in a higher category.

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by brocks

All cards are not created equal. You can see the different categories here:

http://www.pgatour.com/r/player_exemptions/

A tournament typically has 150 or so spots, and they are filled by taking all the players from Category 1 who have entered, then all in Category 2, and on down, until there are no more spots. By the time it matters, i.e. by the time you can possibly have near to 150 players, the players are ranked within a category, i.e. for category 19, last year's money list, they are ranked in order of their place on that list (except I don't know how they rank the guys in the medical categories).

So if you won the US Open in the last five years, you have a Platinum Card. If you were first on the money list last year (category 8), you have a Gold Card, but if you were 100th on the money list (category 19), you have a regular card. It's probably good, but you'll have to wait and see who else enters before you know for sure. You have a higher priority than the guy who finished 101, but lower than the guy who finished 99, assuming none of you qualified in a higher category.

Ah, OK.  That makes a lot of sense.  I never really thought about it, just kind of assumed that any PGA tour player who wanted to play in a tournament could, but I guess then they would have to have a cut every day.

Hey, that reminds me, whatever happened to that rule they made a year or two ago where they'd sometimes have a cut on Saturday if the field was too big after Friday?

[brocks]

Hey, that reminds me, whatever happened to that rule they made a year or two ago where they'd sometimes have a cut on Saturday if the field was too big after Friday?

It's still in force. For example, they did it at the ATT a couple weeks ago. Look at the guys marked MDF --- they played three rounds. MDF = Made Cut Did Not Finish http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboards/current/r471/

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by brocks

It's still in force. For example, they did it at the ATT a couple weeks ago. Look at the guys marked MDF --- they played three rounds. MDF = Made Cut Did Not Finish

http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboards/current/r471/

Alright, thanks for the info.  Do those guys get a check?

[MEfree]

Yes they get a check and it is considered a made cut, did not finish.  Here is an example http://www.pgatour.com/tournaments/r034/results.html

For the lower priority ranking categories, they do a number of reshuffles during the year based on money won http://www.pgatour.com/r/2012_reshuffle/index.html

If you were one of the last guys to get your card and don`t get off to a decent start, you might find yourself only getting into about 15-20 tournaments or so.

[MEfree]

Originally Posted by iacas

Surprised nobody had anything to say about this.

There has been lots of talk at other sites (i.e. http://www.cbssports.com/golf/blog/eye-on-golf/19552949/pga-tour-finalizes-controversial-makeover-as-qualifying-school-detonated-after-six-decade-run )

The biggest gripe seems to be that they are making the PGA Tour more of a closed shop by making it more difficult for young pros and foreign players to get straight onto Tour without spending at least a year on the developmental tour.  Much of the public likes the possibility of a Cinderella story coming out of Q School and having a big rookie year (like Dustin Johnson did in 2008 and John Huh did this year without any prior PGA or Developmental Tour experience) and with Q School only granting Developmental Tour status going forward, this will not happen.

Looking at the current Fed Ex Top 50, there might be some truth to these allegations, but I don`t think it has to be as bad as some people believe.

Guys like Tiger, Rory, Phil, Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood, and Louis Oosthuizen all qualified for Tour cards without going to Q School or playing any Developmental Tour events.  This can still be done under the new format.

Other players who got their cards via Q School would likely have qualified for the 3 event Web.com Tour Finals such as Kyle Stanley, Jim Furyk, Bill Hass, Ben Crane and Brendon de Jonge.

More troubling are the 9 players in the current Fed Ex top 50 whose successful PGA Tour careers would have been delayed under the new format:

Hunter Mahan

Luke Donald

John Huh

Dustin Johnson

Brian Davis

Seung-Yul Noh

Sean O`Hair

Cameron Tringale

Michael Thomson

Davis and Noh were able to jump to the PGA Tour via Q School after enjoying success abroad and in limited PGA Tour action.  Without appropriate changes, the new format makes it less likely for a good foreign player to come over and give the PGA Tour a shot.

The 7 other players earned their cards via Q school early in the careers with very little PGA or Developmental Tour experience.  Sean O`Hair is the only one who has played in more than 5 Developmental Tour events and his case is an interesting one.  After turning pro at a very young age in 1999, he made less than 6 K while missing the cut in 14 of 18 Nationwide events from 1999 to 2004 when he finished t4 at Q School to earn his card.  As a Tour rookie in 2005, he won an event and totaled over $2.4 M in earnings.  It costs money to play on the Web.com Tour and to go to Q School.  Could a guy like Sean O`Hair have come up with the $ for Q School if all a t4 netted him was a spot on the developmental tour where he had enjoyed very little success?

I think there are quite a few positives about the new format including the fact that the tour year will now end with the playoffs.  IMO, the Fall Series was kinda like Summer League Basketball- more about helping to determine who is going to play the following season than who wins or loses (with the exception of Luke Donald's year end win to take the money title from Webb Simpson).  Having the Fall events count towards who makes the playoffs ought to help attract better fields to these events instead of having the fields made up mostly of guys struggling to keep their cards.  Off the top of my head, I can`t think of another sport who has current regular season events right after that seasons playoffs.  Nobody would want the NFL to start the playoffs after week 12 and then continue with games 13-16 after the Superbowl.  The PGA Tour and Fed Ex Cup playoffs are better off in the long run by doing away with this anomaly.

With changes come good and bad.  With some well thought out tweaks going forward, I think the PGA Tour can minimize some of the downside of their proposed changes.   More on that another time...